Day 147 - More quaint villages ......

Backwell - A&L's House

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Although today's forecast was still dismal we decided we couldn't sit around all weekend, so we headed off early for a drive to the Cotswolds. This actually worked in our favour, as for the first part of the day we were ahead of the tour buses which we presume were running day trips out of London.

First stop was Castle Combe, which was relatively quiet as it was still quite early. Next town was the picturesque village of Bourton on the Water, where we had to dodge the Japanese teenagers on a school trip that had taken over the footpath, on our way to a tea room for an overpriced and lukewarm "hot" chocolate.

Next destination was Stratford-on-Avon to visit Anne Hathaway's cottage and Shakespeare's birthplace, once again running into the same school group. After driving through more pretty villages we drove home via Stonehenge, but this late in the afternoon there was no way of avoiding the hordes of tour buses. However as the site covers a large area it didn't feel too busy as we wandered around while listening to our audio guide with its different theories surrounding the history of Stonehenge (though there was no mention of it having been built by aliens).

We made it back in time to collect three of A's four children (Storm, Jasper and Ingeline - Kier was at a friend's house) for a nice pub meal with their dad Nigel  - once again for K a catchup on the past 16 years.

We spent the evening trying to find accommodation in London for the week that didn't involve having to spend £250 per night and wasn't booked out. Just as we were finding it all very daunting we widened our perimeter and came across a hotel that was a 15 minute walk to the station and half an hour on the Underground for "only" £80 a night, with free parking.